Do you have a minute? Two? Five? Ten?
In your “typical” work day, you’re probably wasting plenty of time. Go get a coffee, chat up the underwriters about their new program, stop by the desk of your Corporate Challenge partner to check in.
We all seem to recognize that kind of waste as “par for the course” and accept it as a cost of doing business. We’re not here to talk about that. Besides, who doesn’t love a good rehashing of last night’s Game of Thrones?
But, consider: What other time do you waste?
Time spent reformatting data, because your system doesn’t handle .csv files?
Time spent copying output data to another application, so you can perform analysis in the way you want?
Time spent managing your servers and data storage and automatic backups (that, surprise surprise, aren’t actually automatic!)?
All of these are “necessary” to doing your actuarial work, because they’re just part of the system. However, they don’t really add anything to your actuarial function.
They’re simply there because your actuarial tools aren’t sufficient for your actuarial work.
How much time is that?
Let’s say you spend 5 minutes a day on each of 2 tasks that, frankly, you probably shouldn’t. They’re not really adding anything to your risk management. They only exist because you have to do them to get to the real risk management tasks.
2 tasks at 5 minutes each, is 10 minutes. Doesn’t seem like much, does it?
At 10 minutes a day, that’s 50 minutes a week.
200 minutes a month.
2,400 minutes a year.
Which, it turns out, is a full 40 hours.
All of a sudden, 10 minutes a day turned into a whole week’s worth of your time.
Did you know you’re wasting a week every year?
Maybe it’s even more. But, even more important than how much time you waste, consider this:
What’s that wasted time worth to you?
We’re surveying actuaries across all industries, geographies, and professional levels to find out.
Could you help us?
Would you go to this link and complete the survey before July 31, 2020?
We’re going to use that survey to set a baseline for how much time actuaries waste using their current tools.
As we help them reduce that waste, we should be able to show significant savings. In time, and in costs.
Because that’s what it all comes down to, isn’t it?
We’re back to that quantity of “wasted” time. What’s it worth? How might you estimate it? Let’s just pick a number out of the hat. (We’re certain this is the right order of magnitude, but it could be 30% too high or low.)
At an hourly rate of $150, which is pretty cheap for an actuary – just ask any consultant – you’re looking at $6,000 per year.
$6,000. Wasted.
All because you’re using inefficient tools.
What else could you do with that kind of money?
Or, heck, keep the money, just give yourself the time back in either your professional capacity (so you can do a more thorough job on everything), or so you can actually stop working that overtime. Stop taking that “work-cation”. Stop burning yourself out too soon.
Think about it – $6,000 is just one year. Over a career of, what, 30 years? That’s $180k. Add a little interest, and you’ve got yourself a nice nest egg or a healthy indulgence fund.
That estimate comes from just 10 minutes a day. How much more do you waste? And it’s not just little daily tasks. Do you have time that doesn’t add value on a monthly or yearly basis? Maybe it’s time to take a look for yourself.
[If you’re interested in quantifying some of this wasted time, just send an email to info@slopesoftware.com and request the “Cost of Software” workbook. It’s got a handy comparison that you can use to quantify just how much your time is worth.]
Let us know. Complete the survey here and then find us on LinkedIn. Tell us what you think – are we on the right track? Did we get enough categories of wasted time? Are we overselling it a bit?
We’d love to know your thoughts. Best of all, perhaps you’ll see ways to close that gap. And get back some of that 6 grand you’re leaving behind.
[SLOPE software is designed for the modern actuary. To see a demo of how SLOPE’s primary features (no-code formula editor, no proprietary data format, and cloud-based system) eliminate wasted time for actuaries, click here and request a demo.]